Chapter 22

The next day, Lin Youqing and his wife took Jiang Jiang back to her original home to gather her things.

Jiang Jiang’s house could be described as bare, with only two cave houses and a small cave next to them dedicated to cooking.

There was a pile of firewood at the entrance, and the inside was dark. Jiang Jiang led her parents into the cave where she used to sleep.

In the corner, there were two cement jars. These jars were not used to hold water but were for storage. Inside them were various odds and ends: the wooden cart Jiang Jiang had used as a child, some old toys she had played with, a short piece of a broken chair leg, and the beautiful stones Jiang Jiang had collected outside.

For a time, she had been fond of picking up stones, collecting everything from river pebbles to weathered and fish-scale stones, amassing hundreds.

Following her father’s instructions, Jiang Jiang cleared out the clutter from the jar on the right and tried to push it but found it wouldn’t budge. She had to ask Lin Youqing for help.

“Dad, can you help me push this jar?”

Although Lin Youqing did not understand what his daughter intended to do with it, he stepped forward to assist her in moving the cement jar.

Once it was pushed aside, they discovered a hole in the ground over a meter deep.

Under the dim light, the hole looked quite profound. Lin Youqing exchanged a glance with his wife, both of their faces showing surprise.

This hole had been dug by Jiang Jiang’s father while constructing the cave.

To prevent thieves from stealing from their homes, he dug this hole after completing building the cave house to store their valuable belongings. There was nothing else inside the hole besides a paper bundle wrapped thickly in yellow paper. Jiang Jiang unwrapped the paper to find six old Yuan coins and a silver bracelet.

The silver bracelet was the only thing left to her by her mother.

The old Yuan coins had been collected by her father, who said that he would sell them when she was of school age to pay for her tuition.

“Is this what Jiang Jiang’s mother left behind?” He Guijuan asked.

The bracelet looked like an old-fashioned silver enamel bracelet adorned with floral patterns. It seemed to be a piece of craftsmanship from decades ago rather than a recent creation.

Jiang Jiang nodded. “Mom, please help me keep this safe.”

She handed the old Yuan coins and the silver bracelet to He Guijuan, knowing she wouldn’tcouldn’t take care of them herself.

“Alright, I’ll keep them for you and give them back when you’re older,” He Guijuan replied, putting both the silver bracelet and the old coins into her satchel.

“Is there anything else you need to pack? Do you want to take these to the county?” He Guijuan asked, pointing at the items Jiang Jiang had cleared out.

Jiang Jiang shook her head. “Let’s leave them here.”

Lin Youqing returned the cement jar to its original position. He Guijuan put her arm around the child’s shoulders as they headed outside.

As Jiang Jiang glanced back, she suddenly stepped onto a stool and took down an enameled jar from the top of the cabinet.

The paint on its surface had chipped away, revealing a bright red peony design. Holding the enameled jar, Jiang Jiang felt a sudden wave of nostalgia for her father. When he was alive, he loved to drink water from this ceramic jar.

“Be careful,” He Guijuan said, her heart skipping a beat as she hurried to steady the stool.

Jiang Jiang jumped down from the stool, brushed the dust off the enameled jar, and looked around the empty room. There was nothing else to take.

“Ahem…” The dust raised was a bit choking. “I’ve packed everything, Mom. Let’s go outside.”

The family was truly poor. If it had been a couple of years earlier, they might have been able to gather more items.

However, Jiang Jiang’s mother passed away shortly after she was born. Her father, a farmer raising a daughter alone, hadn’t left much behind.

They could only find the old Yuan coins and the silver bracelet hidden in the hole, along with this enameled jar.

Once outside, Jiang Jiang placed the makeshift cage containing the old hen on the ground. With Lin Youqing’s help, they locked the door behind them.

Suddenly, the sun disappeared behind clouds. Jiang Jiang stared at the locked door, feeling a mix of emotions.

She was now Lin Jiang Jiang, ready to embark on a new life.

“Let’s go,” Lin Youqing said, giving his daughter’s shoulder a reassuring pat.

Jiang Jiang snapped back to reality, nodded, and picked up the chicken cage from the ground.

—o—o—o—

On the afternoon of the third day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Youqing quietly slipped away to the Jiang family graveyard, keeping it a secret from his wife and daughter.

Jiang Jiang’s parents were buried there, their two graves close together, with grass growing over a yard high.

Lin Youqing cleared the weeds around the graves and lit two incense sticks.

“Fusheng, don’t worry. Jiang Jiang will be my daughter from now on.”

“Guijuan and I will take good care of Jiang Jiang and raise her to adulthood.”

—o—o—o—

Zhou Fugui’s small plot of land lay beneath the road leading to the county town, just a short distance from the village.

He arrived at his plot carrying a hoe. After tilling the soil, he went down to the nearby stream to scoop up mud to water the ground. During this season, few people were working in the fields.

His wife and a neighbor’s wife were arguing fiercely over a trivial matter while the two children had turned the house upside down. Zhou Fugui decided to come outside to work the land to escape the chaos, preferring to be away from the mess.

“Uncle Fugui.”

A little girl’s voice called out from the road. Zhou Fugui looked up and saw Jiang Jiang.

She was wearing a maroon cotton jacket and a pair of brand-new black shoes. Her hair was neatly styled into two shiny braids, and her face was clean and fair.

To an outsider, it was hard to imagine that she had once worn tattered clothes and had been thin and pale as if she had been completely transformed.

“Jiang Jiang? I heard that you were adopted by Secretary Lin and his wife. How are they treating you? Are they good to you?”

“They are all very good to me,” Jiang Jiang replied, jumping from the road into the plot. “Uncle, my mom and dad said they would be going back to the county tomorrow. I want to bow to you before they leave.”

“This…”

As she spoke, Jiang Jiang took a step back, knelt down earnestly, and bowed to Zhou Fugui.

“Uncle Fugui, thank you for caring for me these past two years. Your kindness will always be remembered by Jiang Jiang.”

“Get up…” Zhou Fugui felt a complex mix of emotions.

He gently patted the child’s head with a clean hand. “Your father looked after me a lot when he was alive. I feel useless, unable to provide for you, and you never even had a full meal at my house, suffering instead.”

“Uncle Fugui, please don’t say that. You’ve already treated me very well. If it weren’t for you, I would have starved to death long ago.”

Even though Jiang Jiang disliked Zhou Fugui’s wife for feeding her spoiled food every day, chased her out of the kitchen to sleep in the yard, and scolded her for stealing, how she also didn’t like being bullied by Yinhua and Jinbao, Uncle Fugui was a good person.

When she had no cotton clothes in winter, he altered one of his old cotton jackets to fit her and would give her sorghum buns to eat.

“Good child, now that you’re going to the city with Secretary Lin and his wife, you must be obedient and sensible. They adopted you, so they are your parents now. Next year, you can start going to school, so you need to study hard. Only by studying can you find a way out…”

Zhou Fugui brushed the dust off the child’s clothes. “Alright, you’ve been out here long enough. Your parents must be worried about you. You should head back now.”

As Zhou Fugui watched Jiang Jiang’s silhouette disappear, he couldn’t help but cry.

He truly felt happy for her.

Knowing his daughter would be cared for, Fusheng must finally be at peace in heaven.